


I Hear You

by theplatinthehat



Series: The Doctor and The Cellist [4]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Fix-It, Gen, Mentions of Cancer, but very briefly, cat nicholls is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23948578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theplatinthehat/pseuds/theplatinthehat
Summary: The TARDIS, Sheffield, 2019Graham has a confession to make.The Doctor isn't quite sure what to say.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Graham O'Brien
Series: The Doctor and The Cellist [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704577
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	I Hear You

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: a rewrite of the conversation between the Doctor and Graham at the end of Can You Hear Me? - thank you to createdbytom on Tumblr for the suggestion! I hope you like the result :)
> 
> Everlasting thanks to Taka's friend, Levi, who helped me find the correct part of the Doctor Who soundtrack for this scene.
> 
> There are some author's notes at the end of this fic. I'd appreciate it if you gave those a quick read too. Thank you.

It’s been a long day.

 _A long few days, let’s be real_ , the Doctor thinks to herself.

She, Yaz, Ryan and Graham have been chased across time and space by beings that _literally_ feed off nightmares. Admittedly, that would be pretty cool if it wasn’t so terrifying. Feeding off dreams… she’d met someone else like that, a long time ago.

“Hey, Doc,” a voice asks softly, “can I talk to you a sec?”

It’s Graham. Good old, Graham. Always there with a smile, a cup of tea and an everlasting supply of dad (and grandad) jokes – to Ryan’s everlasting horror.

“Sure,” the Doctor replies, flipping a couple of switches to allow the TARDIS to enter rest mode for a few minutes. She folds her arms and takes a step back into the cool blue light. “What’s up?”

Graham opens his mouth, but stops – like he isn’t sure where to start.

“You can tell me, Graham. I’ve got a listening face – or at least I think I do. I _used_ to anyway.”

Graham still says nothing.

“You can tell me anything, Graham.”

The man takes a deep breath. “The thing is, Doc,” he confesses, “I worry about getting sick again, y’know? ‘Bout the – ” Graham looks around for a moment to check that no-one is listening, “’bout the cancer coming back and I didn’t know.”

The Doctor is taken aback slightly, but forces her face to remain neutral. True, she did just tell him that he could tell her anything, but the severity of this statement is not something she had prepared for.

Although perhaps she should have expected it, seeing as they’ve all been dragged through hell and back.

“And I didn’t know who to say it to,” Graham admits, “so I thought I’d say it to you, y’know, seeing as you’re a doctor.”

He takes a few steps forward. The Doctor stays rooted to the spot. This is important. She has to _listen._

“Look, cos once you have it, it’s with you the whole time. Not – not quite a shadow, but, um, hey – hey – ”

He’s starting to babble now. The Doctor’s bad habits are rubbing off on him.

“Don’t get me wrong, I mean my check-ups they’re all fine. But it made me think, y’know?”

She does know. She thinks all the time and she wishes it would just stop.

“And – uh – I thought I should talk about it. Cos these nightmares, I mean,” he coughs a little, “they made me realise that the fear is – is still there.”

This confession rocks the Doctor to her core. Graham. Solid, steady, Graham is still frightened. And the Doctor just doesn’t know what to say. There are no words of comfort ready to trip off the edge of her tongue. No quick joke that will distract him from this terror.

Nothing.

But then her mind turns, slipping into a new train of thought. Back to an old face, to an old friend – who is still technically a current friend and she really ought to introduce Cat to the fam sometime soon – and what she had said.

About fear.

About illness.

About the lonely gnawing from the inside out.

The Doctor reaches out, and puts a hand on Graham’s shoulder.

“I hear you, Graham,” she says. “I can only imagine what you’re going through, and I wish I had the right words to help you, but… I hear you.”

Graham smiles, like a great weight has been lifted off of his shoulders.

“Thanks, Doc,” he replies. “It’s good to get it out, y’know?”

He turns to leave, walking towards the TARDIS door.

An idea suddenly springs into the Doctor’s mind.

“I dunno if it would help but…” she starts, cursing herself as the sentence fizzles out into nothing.

Graham turns back around. “But what?”

“I mean,” the Doctor says, waving her arm in a lazy gesture, “I’ve got this TARDIS, and this TARDIS has got scanners. Like really, _really_ good biometric scanners. Would you like me to get the TARDIS to scan you? We can set it for as long an interval as you like and there are no needles and it’s super accurate – unless you’re a Flesh Ganger, then we might end up with a false negative – ”

The words are gushing from her like a waterfall now.

Graham holds his hands up. “Woah, Doc, slow down. You’re confusing me.”

The Doctor coughs, trying to calm her mind and starts again. “Every time you get into the TARDIS, I can get her to run a low-level scan for pretty much any health condition you can think of. Totally safe and non-invasive. If you think it would help?”

Graham frowns, mulling this offer over. Then, he looks up to the Doctor with a smile.

“That would help, Doc. That would really, _really_ help.”

The Doctor returns his smile, pleased that she has figured out a way to help her friend.

“Let’s set it up now! Come on, I’ll show you how it’s done. Housekeeping first; what’s your full name and date of birth?”

**Author's Note:**

> I remember when I first watched this scene when it was broadcast earlier this year and being horrified at the Doctor's dismissive reaction. As you can imagine, I was pretty pleased to receive the suggestion of trying to rewrite it in a more positive and affirming light. But then I decided to do some research into why the writers had done the scene in the way they did. They must have had their reasons after all? It seemed odd for them to do something so totally bizarre (at least, so it seemed to me). 
> 
> So I looked it up, and discovered that their intention was to show that it was alright to not know the right thing to say in the face of such huge and downright frightening circumstances. While I think this is something that is very valuable to discuss, I think they could have approached it differently.
> 
> I have therefore attempted to incorporate both of these ideas into this rewrite, and I have done so with what I hope to be respect. I sincerely hope I have done the topic justice, even in just a short piece of work. If you take anything away from this, I hope it's this - be there for your friends and listen to them. You don't have to have a grand monologue ready for them, just listen. They'll tell you what they need.
> 
> This is an ongoing series which will include some flash-fiction, some short stories and some longer adventures. If you like you can send a prompt with a time/place/Doctor/companion suggestion to my tumblr [theplatinthehat](https://tumblr.com/theplatinthehat) and we'll see what I can come up with. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this story.


End file.
